Ye Ought to Be Teachers — Hans R. Waldvogel

The Call to Maturity in the Word of God

For the time ye ought to be teachers ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of god. And ye have need of milk and not of me. And that made me think oh if this morning tell me wouldn't that be wonderful if god could call every one of us by and say i've got something to say to you and to talk to you.

Well listen he does teachers. It's in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom we shine whole that we shall force the praises of him into his mind into the same image into the image of christ.

The result is that we are being made partakers of ourselves from. Another result is that we walk not as other gentiles walk in the vanity of our minds hearkened by the ignorance that is in them. Another result is that we in the flesh but we mortify the deeds of the body.

And of course the works of the flesh are manifest. And they that do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of god. But the fruit of the spirit which we are bearing is love joy gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance.

That's the result of the word of god being spoken to our hearts. For god said the word that proceeded out of my mouth shall not return unto me void. But it shall accomplish that whereunto i sent it. In other words it's the seed of the kingdom and it brings forth the reign of christ ought to be teachers.

Becoming Teachers Through the Light of Christ

Well we are teachers. We can sit down and often talk by the hour about. I've heard that again and again we can tell everybody shine. Light is light. God is at all because he is in the light. And if my eye is single and i keep looking at jesus and keep my mind stayed upon jehovah my whole endlessly wonderful blessing to have god speak to us by his son not like he spoke to the prophets joseph and gave them the law gifts up at your door.

Has he ever knocked at the door of your heart. Has he ever spoken to your heart. Have you heard his voice. Have you heard him plaintively asked to let him come into your heart. Have you heard him say to you that you're wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.

And that you don't need to remain like that. But if you'll hear his voice and open the door he will come in. He'll give you gold tried in the fire. He'll give you reality beauty for ashes the oil of joy for the spirit of heaviness.

Christ as Our Righteousness

He will substitute himself for yourself. He has loved you so deeply that he did the work that moses couldn't do. And what the law could not do he accomplished by fulfilling the law by creating a righteousness that exceeds the righteousness of scribes and pharisees by becoming himself your righteousness.

We heard the truth expressed a while ago when we heard that no man cometh unto the father but by jesus christ. And it is by heeding his voice. We ought to give them more to the things which we have heard.

Lessons from Military Training and the Need for Spiritual Preparation

When they tried to make a soldier out of me in 1918 i thought we were working hard to be put on the drill field for eight and a half hours a day we made to drill in the cold temperature. It was so cold that sometimes my limbs were stiff i could hardly move them.

And eight and a half hours of it was so much that when the flu struck the camp people men like died like flies every morning when we stood reveille three or four would drop like dead. Next day they were dead.

And you know our officers were so hard of heart they didn't allow us to carry them into the barracks. They have to lie there until in addition to that the government needed officers so badly that instead of training them for three years they tried to finish them.

In four months time they needed so many officers. They lacked officers. And really our officers were so the ones we had that contributed to our heavy death toll in the cold. Sometimes they didn't know how to drill us at all.

And so in four months time they tried to create officers. And i pitied those fellows because when we and our drilling time was over these fellows had to go to work more than ever and and continue working until midnight.

That's how they tried to train officers. And god is training officers. When for the time ye ought to be teachers. You have need again that someone teach you you have need of milk and not of meat. And then he goes on to tell us what the matter is.

Entering God’s Rest Through the Heavenly Joshua

But nevertheless he says even though we thus speak have a confidence in you and things that accompany salvation though we thus speak what is he talking about. God has spoken to us. And he has a very definite message a very definite holy call.

His call is for us to enter into that rest which joshua was not able to lead his people into. It took the heavenly joshua to come down from heaven to lay down his life that we might have his life. Oh that's the thing god wants us to hear that he's provided a savior for us who saves to the uttermost.

But he tells us in the fifth chapter he's become the author of eternal salvation to them that obey him. Where did a forerunner is for us entered. Where did you go jesus. He says i go to prepare a place for you.

I want you to be where i am. And i'll come again. I will not leave you orphans. I'll come again. Has he come to you. Has he come to you. Have you accepted him. If you accept him he will take over and he will reign for that wonderful savior that marvelous joshua who has conquered the promised land and who is leading his people into rest must have people that follow him explicitly men and women that forsake all to follow him who hate their own lives also.

That's his call. And that's the reason he calls upon us today. If you will hear his voice everything depends upon my hearing his voice. That wonderful voice that calls me today. And how strange that in the songs of david these songs which are relegated to all just to poetry by our modernistic theologians they are the mighty word of jehovah as mighty as the word that was spoken to the israelites from mount sinai that made moses fear and exceedingly quick.

We better take heed to this great salvation. How shall we escape. And today he speaks again. If ye will hear his voice today calling the people of god so many siren voices that pretend to be the voices of god that pretend and purport to be the voice of jehovah.

The Word as the Two-Edged Sword

And here it's a sword full trust about that two-edged sword that was exercised in bible school. I had a similar experience in a bible school a prominent bibles to preach in that church. And all the students were there.

And one night god made me talk about obedience and disobedience about the word he that hath my commandments and keepeth them. And my message was certainly very simple but very straightforward. And a strange thing happened.

The people heard from heaven. The students heard from heaven. Now they'd studied the bible. They'd studied theology and exegesis and homiletics and all those things. But that night that simple message spoken in the power of the holy ghost presented to them a living word the sword of the spirit.

It shone right through them. It exposed the depths of their being. And a strange thing happened at 10 o 'clock when the meeting should have been dismissed. The dean arose. He was sitting with me on the platform and he made a confession to the whole student body.

He confessed that he had not lived according to the bible. He had not lived the commands of jesus he had transgressed. It wasn't a great sin such as we would call a great sin. But you know when the holy spirit gets a chance he'll show us how wretched and miserable and poor and blinded our very righteousnesses are.

Oh for the grace of god. What is man that thou art mindful of him. My god. You stepped down into the depths of my despair. And you were made sin for me. And in any other way you could never have delivered me from my sin.

He was manifested in his last days to take away our sin. And how is it that we trifle with our sin. And we call it a trifling incident. We call it something we don't need to repent of. Oh no we don't need to confess that sin beloved.

We'll never be rid of it until we confess it. And the dean confessed. And when he got through one after the other of the students arose and confessed. It took two hours. And for two hours from 10 till 12 o 'clock there was nothing heard but confession and sobs.

Sobs from theologians from bible students. And almost everyone confessed that coming to bible school made him backslide because now he was pressed down with so many studies that he didn't have time to get alone with jesus and let that two-edged sword do its work.

He didn't have time to listen to god to get still. That's the thing we need beloved. Oh this is the thing we need. We need this presence of almighty god to dig and to dig praise god. And we need that two-edged sword.

Confession, the Holy Spirit, and Spiritual Rest

We need both these blessings. That's why he tells us we who have believed believed what. Why we believe into presence of jesus. And we are going to rest by ceasing from our own words and waiting upon the lord and waiting upon his words and waiting upon him to do his works.

And how does he do it. He unsheathes his sword. He speaks to our hearts. He takes these wonderful words of the new testament and he quickens them to our soul. And presently this word which was formerly just the bible becomes before whose eyes nothing is hidden whose eyes are like flames of fire.

And he searches the depths of our hearts. And a strange thing happened in that bible school. After those two hours of confession a wonderful atmosphere came upon that place. In a subsequent meeting nobody could preach the dean and everybody danced.

And so many people were baptized in the holy ghost. There were so many slain of the lord. That mind you. It was a fashionable church building with painted windows so fashionable that the manifestations of the spirit had been ruled out and everybody was just drenched with pentecostal.

It was mobagera by god has spoken unto us. And what did he say. He says for the time you ought to be teachers. And why are we not teachers. Because we don't submit ourselves to that two-edged sword. We don't hearken diligently.

We neglect so great salvation. And we forget that god's salvation provides for a cleansing from all our sins. Not only the apparent sins but the hidden sins which we have never discovered and would never discover.

But for this two-edged sword which is quick and powerful which pierces to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. But behold the tragedy.

Pentecostal Power and the Loss of First Love

Behold this great tragedy. Where is pentecost today. Oh we have many things to boast up. We are rich and increased with goods and we have need of nothing. Whereas in the beginning of pentecost we were driven out of the churches today we command the best churches in town.

Just recently a four million dollar office building was dedicated that is air conditioned. We are glad for that. We're thankful to god for that. But when i attended a great pentecostal convention semblance of worship in the place.

Oh it was better than other churches. True. There were many signs of god's never satisfied. The deepest longing of my soul out in the hall. This interest in me. There was a a vendor of newspapers. And you would see the men and the women the preachers and the preacheresses come into the hall and into the meeting with a newspaper.

And the newspaper boy put up a sign. He said business is good. God bless you. I don't know what the angel the recording angel would said business is good. I longed so for pentecostal power. And the only place where my heart could be satisfied was in the prayer room.

In the morning between nine and ten before the program started the prayer room was open. But how few people you found in the prayer room. Listen. Mostly colored folks. Despised colored people but precious in the sight of the lord.

Oh to get down among these colored folks and hear them pray with groanings that cannot be uttered. Sounded like azusa street in los angeles that first love was burning there. I said god why is it not burning in the convention.

People coming from the ends of the world to get acquainted with pentecost go away disappointed instead of finding a candlestick burning instead of the presence of god manifested so greatly that men and women are slain under the power of god find his big shots making big speeches.

Eloquent speeches. God bless them. I respect them. I respect the labors of men. But beloved. That is not what god has talked to me about. That is not what god is offering me. He says i offer you gold tried in the fire that thou mayest be rich.

And i said that thou mayest see moments that the shame of thy nakedness be not discovered. And if you don't i'll spew the out of my mouth. Oh if you were cold i could deal. I could deal with you. But i know that you've been speaking to us.

But what good does it do. What good does it do. We're rich. We're increased with goods. We have need of nothing. No we don't. We really don't. We really at least. Oh yes we have lots of needs. But god we don't have need of your stuff.